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Epilogue Meta-narrative A. K. Ramanujan once noted, “To some extent all later Ramayanas play on the knowledge of previous tellings: they are meta-Ramayanas.”1 The Ramayana tradition has a long history of commenting on Ramkatha from within a particular telling of the story.2 The most conspicuous example in this volume is Basavalingaiah’s re-presentation of Shudra Tapasvi, in which the actors relate what Puttappa thought about Ramkatha by Valmiki and Bhavabhuti. By telling Ramkatha in a way that alludes to other tellings, the actors encourage the audience to think about the Ramayana tradition as a whole. Another kind of meta-narrative occurs in the selection that provides this volume’s epilogue. The Telugu women’s song “Lakshmana’s Laugh” takes a step back from the narrative to consider some of the underlying patterns of the story. Despite the fact that Ramkatha should inculcate dharma, at many junctures characters in the narrative perform deeds of which they feel ashamed. The song refers to incidents from every part of the story and intrudes on the inner thoughts of all sorts of characters: high and low in status, male and female, haughty and humble. In a sense, the song suggests that all creatures have flaws, thereby providing a human perspective on characters expected, at times, to live up to inhumanly high standards of behavior. Notes 1. Ramanujan 1991: 33. 2. Aklujkar (2001: 83–103) focuses specifically on meta-narrative in Ananda Ramayana . ...

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